Chat: Mount & Blade: With Fire and Sword

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If there’s one thing that horses are good for, it’s glue. But before glue had been invented people used them as cars. You might be surprised to learn that they are superior to cars in a number of ways, and the best of those is that they’re perfect for swinging a sword from back of as you attempt to trample your enemies. Videogames have seldom managed to portrayed this positive and healthy activity in a useful way, so we are glad that one game manages to do that: Mount & Blade. This horsey melee game series has been been around for a while now, and is about to ride again with a third title: Mount & Blade: With Fire and Sword. I decided to have a quick chat with TaleWorlds’ producer Mikail Yazbeck about what this new game means, and where it came from.RPS: Can you start off telling us a little about the Mount & Blade games, for those unfamiliar with them. What sort of games are they, and why are they special?

Yazbeck: Certainly! Not the first time we’ve had to answer this question, but the answer is never easy nor short. Mount & Blade games are about a few key things, using your imagination and ambition to make your own story and reach your own goals and taking advantage of different play styles the game offers; whether it be brutal combat, decisive commanding, keen trading, or crafty politics and kingdom building.

That’s not to mention the amazing mod and multiplayer scene we have had going since Mount & Blade 1, which has only flourished with the release of Warband. Really, any time I have the opportunity to tip my proverbial hat to our community, I’ll take it.

But I personally think people find Mount & Blade games special because they offer something to gaming that people have been wanting, which is a solid somewhat realistic ranged and melee combat system that is completely skill based and wholly satisfying, all set a truly open and dynamic medieval world (sorry folks, no elves!)

RPS: Can you tell us a bit about what Fire And Sword does that’s different from the other Mount & Blade games?

Yazbeck: With Fire & Sword introduces new tactics and new styles of play because of the historical period it’s set in brings to the table the age of firearms & hand grenades. The single-player and multi-player modes offer new thrills (sounds very market-y I know, but really, there are new thrills, I promise) because of all the new features and weaponry introduced.

RPS: Is this once again a primarily single-player experience? What multiplayer elements does it offer?

Yazbeck: The single-player campaign features an all new map, factions, weapons, armour, customizable army system, great new castle/town upgrades, and better balanced economy with more money making options. Oh and it features lengthy optional storyline quests for players craving a more purposeful experience.

The multiplayer has 15 new maps and a nifty new mode called “Captain Team Deathmatch” which gives each player a squad of bots (up to 24) to command. These bots are controlled in the same way as single-player and enable players to stage massive battles. I think people will end up doing a lot of historical re-enactments with this system. I’m hoping I can participate in some of them! If you’ve got any planned just PM Yazzy on the TaleWorlds forums!

RPS: Wasn’t Fire And Sword already released in Eastern Europe? How is that different from what is being released in the West?

Yazbeck: It was actually released twice over there. The most recent release is this new version of the game that’s been made in the Warband engine(which we’ve since polished even more for the international release). And the first release was inside of the Mount & Blade 1 engine and was released in between M&B 1 and M&B:Warband, but only in Eastern Europe. That older version of course didn’t have all the features that this version has, but was demanded enough for us(and by us I mean Sich Studios/Snowberry along with TaleWorlds) to want to remake it using the Warband engine and bring to an international audience.

RPS: What sort of challenges have you had in making this particular game work the way you intended? Has the modern era of firearms changed the way the game has played?

Yazbeck: Balance was and is always a concern when you introduce something so radical as firearms into a game like ours, but we feel that overall firearms add more flavour and styles of play to the game and thus worked out they way we’ve wanted them to. I hope players feel the same way, and I’ll try to make regular polls on the forums to sort out the best balance for everyone, if they’re feeling too at odds with the implementation.

RPS: Can you tell us anything about future plans for the Mount & Blade series?

Nothing too specific I can reveal right now, except since the release of Warband we’ve staffed up and are cooking some pretty good things.

RPS: And can you tell us a price and release date?

Yazbeck: With Pleasure! Yes, this new stand-alone expansion is coming out May 3rd and will priced at $14.99 (you’ve got to hate those .99 cents!).

$14.99 is the perfect price point for me. I bought the first version of M&B when it was in beta or whatever. I’ve been thinking about Warband but it seems a bit expensive ($30 currently, I think) when I don’t know how much I’ll enjoy the multiplayer. But this is very tempting. And there’s something so stylish about black powder pistols…

Yep, I was reading this interview ‘knowing’ that I wouldn’t be buying the game for a long time (assumed it’d be $20+). Usually when a game is out of my price range for release I’ll just wait till it comes down to $5 or so, but at only $15 at release, there’s no way I can pass this up!

The Mount and Blade series is absolutely fantastic value for money. It’s one of those games like MC and DF where it’s so deep and engaging that you really could play it for years, (and easily so with mods). I’d love to see more games explore that narrative formula (whereby the story is just what you end up doing, but you’re given metrics to measure your success like money/power etc). A massive Steam backlog is the only reason I play anything else, really.

M&B is one of the few games that hit that “There’s no story, so go wherever and do whatever you want” sweet spot that has been needing attention since I was a kid playing Sid Meier’s Pirates for months on end.

This is the best “fighting on a horse” game I’ve ever played, and the rest of it doesn’t suck either. I bought the first version and played it for a year, then got distracted by other stuff. I should re-visit it when the expansion is released, although I’m a little worried about the gun balance. Looks like a one-shot kill that could really ruin your day.

The best thrill I had back when I played the first version, was when I was finally able to pull off a “Parthian shot”. That’s where you run away from an enemy on your horse, then turn around in the saddle and fire backwards to kill your pursuer. It’s very hard to do, and I couldn’t do it consistently., but man, it felt great when it happened.

Headshot dealt triple damage, so in most cases it was a one hit kill. Although saying that a crossbow could one shot you in the torso depending on what you’re wearing.

Unless they’ve changed the gun mechanics they’re no big deal. Lack of accuracy means they’re only effective in numbers. Charging headlong at a group will get you killed, but a single gunner will be lucky to hit the barn, let alone it’s door.

What should be interesting is bowmen versus gunners. Bows are faster to shoot and more accurate, guns are deadlier but much slower. Should be an interesting fight.

From my experiences playing Warband, I’d say it depends on your weapons. I favour a bloody great poleaxe and became quite proficient at deftly avoiding a lance, swatting the bastard off his horse and then caving his skull in.

Still not sure what this has that goes beyond a total conversion mod. We have several TC mods for warband with guns and swords – for zero dollars.
I *want* to give Taleworlds $15 for a game with better mechanics. Hell, I’d give them $50 for a shinier warband – improve everything, but particularly make the quests/factions stuff more complex but with a better interface for it. There are a lot of creative mods that adds oodles of layers of management but they all have to work within the Warband dialogue system, for the most part. Give modders more tools, and let them come up with the content, as opposed to offering a pay-for mode.
(That sounds ranty, but if there are a lot of improvements like I’m talking about in F&S that I’m missing please point them out – I’d like to be wrong here.)

Cars are just as good if not better than a horse to swing a sword from while you try and run down your enemies, you just need the right type of car, or you’re not doing it right.
A nice convertible JEEP or something, with a nice sturdy bullbar is the way to go, and you only have to feed them petrol!

A Jeep or any other car is more akin to a chariot, as you’ll need someone to drive while you fight. Else, there’s no way to get a decent swing at anything, what with the windscreen and everything else in the way, not to mention no space to backswing and get any sort of force into your blow.

I do like melee based games but always feel its very challenging to balance them once you add guns to the mix. PVKII did a decent job by providing shields and the ability to block arrows/bullets. However its not easy to have both so it will be interesting to see how it plays. Hopefully they will go back to the ‘pre-gun’ eras for future versions and not keep moving into the future.

I hope they pull it off as the description is exactly what I would want in a M’n’B LOTRs crossover. – “In this mod you are placed in Middle Earth just before War of the Ring starts and your actions can decide the winner”

I am a little concerned the last release was in 2007 and is for an outdated version of the first Mount and Blade. However they are still posting one their forum so its still being worked on. :)

“No offense, but that’s possibly one of the most retarded statements I’ve ever read on the internet.”

Having had the complete and utter misfortune to have happened across far too many of your own retarded statements on this site, gorgol, I think you’re being grossly unfair to your own handiwork…

When it comes to redundant brain splurges, you win by at least 3 furlongs. Maybe it’s time to trot back off to your nosebag (I was going to add “you complete canter”, but managed to resist the temptation).